Working with 'dir' command on Windows CMD prompt

# Finding a file/folder with a string in its name.



Note:
/s
Lists every occurrence of the specified file name within the specified directory and all subdirectories.

Exploring "dir" documentation

C:\Users\Ashish Jain>help dir 
Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
  [/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/R] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]

  [drive:][path][filename]
              Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list.

  /A          Displays files with specified attributes.
  attributes   D  Directories                R  Read-only files
               H  Hidden files               A  Files ready for archiving
               S  System files               I  Not content indexed files
               L  Reparse Points             -  Prefix meaning not
  /B          Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).
  /C          Display the thousand separator in file sizes.  This is the
              default.  Use /-C to disable display of separator.
  /D          Same as wide but files are list sorted by column.
  /L          Uses lowercase.
  /N          New long list format where filenames are on the far right.
  /O          List by files in sorted order.
  sortorder    N  By name (alphabetic)       S  By size (smallest first)
               E  By extension (alphabetic)  D  By date/time (oldest first)
               G  Group directories first    -  Prefix to reverse order
  /P          Pauses after each screenful of information.
  /Q          Display the owner of the file.
  /R          Display alternate data streams of the file.
  /S          Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
  /T          Controls which time field displayed or used for sorting
  timefield   C  Creation
              A  Last Access
              W  Last Written
  /W          Uses wide list format.
  /X          This displays the short names generated for non-8dot3 file
              names.  The format is that of /N with the short name inserted
              before the long name. If no short name is present, blanks are
              displayed in its place.
  /4          Displays four-digit years

Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable.  Override
preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W. 

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# You can include files in the current or named directory plus all of its accessible subdirectories by using the /S option. This example displays all of the .WKS and .WK1 files in the D:\DATA directory and each of its subdirectories:

dir /s d:\data\*.wks;*.wk1

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# Look for text files in D: drive containing the letter 'ACC' in the case-insensitive manner.
dir /s D:\*ACC*.txt

OUTPUT:
 Directory of D:\Downloads\rw\jakarta-tomcat-8.0.35\logs
30-Dec-16  02:05 PM            61,549 localhost_access_log.2016-10-06.txt
...
Directory of D:\Work Space\rw_new\temp\iTAP\licenses
27-Jan-16  07:46 PM             1,536 javacc-license.txt
               1 File(s)          1,536 bytes 

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We have following directory structure in a "test" folder:

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test>tree /f 
Folder PATH listing for volume Windows
Volume serial number is 8139-90C0
C:.
│   3.txt
│
├───1
│   └───a
│           file.txt
│
└───2
        file_2.txt 

1. List everything in this directory:

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test>dir /s/b

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\2
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\3.txt
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1\a
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1\a\file.txt
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\2\file_2.txt

2. List subdirectories of this directory:

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test>dir /s/b /A:D

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\2
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1\a

3. List files in this directory and subdirectories:

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test>dir /s/b /A:-D

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\3.txt
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1\a\file.txt
C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\2\file_2.txt

Explanation for ‘dir /A:D’:

D:\>dir /? 

Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
  [/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/R] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]

  [drive:][path][filename]
              Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list.

  /A          Displays files with specified attributes.
  attributes   D  Directories                R  Read-only files
               H  Hidden files               A  Files ready for archiving
               S  System files               I  Not content indexed files
               L  Reparse Points             -  Prefix meaning not 

Another way of listing only subdirectories:

C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test>dir /s | find "\"

 Directory of C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test
 Directory of C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1
 Directory of C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\1\a
 Directory of C:\Users\Ashish Jain\OneDrive\Desktop\test\2